Solo: A Star Wars Story Review: Certainly Different

Solo: A Star Wars Story has memorable characters, though Alden Ehrenreich does his own take on playing such a beloved and well-known character which is good and bad depending on how one views it.

For one, it is also slightly hard to believe he is a young Harrison Ford considering the two have a minuscule resemblance to each other. It is an interesting and enjoyable movie, however, there are aspects of it that don’t make much sense, and some of the acting is rather dry (in surprising places, such as Emilia Clarke as Qi’ra).

The story reveals much about Han Solo’s background before Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, although, much of what they reveal isn’t exactly what fans were looking for. Though it wasn’t much of a subject of curiosity, how Han Solo got his last name is revealed. And sadly, it is not the most interesting of stories that could have been included. That being said (small spoilers in the next sentence), if compared to Princess Leia’s Peter Panning back onto a ship from the vacuum of space, or Luke Skywalker not acting like himself as in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Solo is the more entertaining and more sensical of the two most recent films. This is partially due to the smaller details of the film, like characters the audience cares about more, perhaps because they’re more developed; as well as the unique storyline. Star Wars: The Last Jedi was rather formulaic in its storytelling, whereas Solo’s film at least took the audience in a direction we haven’t see as much of.

Despite all that, the movie is an engaging one and has a nostalgic soundtrack as well as the impressive state of the art special effects. Overall, the story has some holes and inconsistencies, yet, it is entertaining and offers much of the same well-loved science fiction world as the preceding Star Wars movies. The challenge the film presents is removing Harrison Ford from the Star Wars saga in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and then asking the audience of fans to reignite their feelings for him years after the fact. The series also switched directors for the film, from, most recently Rian Johnson, to Ron Howard, who both have different styles of direction and storytelling. Ron Howard seems more inclined to share details of the protagonist with the audience, whereas Johnson seems to develop his characters less. They both have their own perception of the Star Wars universe and take the different stories in quite opposite directions.

In the end, although it is an enjoyable film to watch, it’s not particularly memorable out of all the Star Wars films.